Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire SmartThings, the leading open platform for the smart home and the consumer Internet of Things. SmartThings supports an open and growing ecosystem of developers, who are producing new types of connected devices and unique apps in the cloud that change how everyday objects work. With Samsung’s resources and support, SmartThings will be able to expand its platform and become available for even more partners and devices. The company will continue to operate independently under founder and CEO Alex Hawkinson, and will become part of the Samsung Open Innovation Center (OIC), which is responsible for bringing software and services innovation to Samsung Electronics. SmartThings will move its headquarters from Washington, DC to Palo Alto, California. Founded in 2012, SmartThings gives people power to monitor, control, and automate their homes from wherever they are through a single mobile app.

   

The Volvo Journey Anders Carlsson, Senior Advisor - Virtual Manufacturing & PLM, Volvo Car Corporation Since its sale by Ford Motor Company to Geely Automobile in 2010 Volvo Cars has been a stand-alone company. So how does a global brand with only 0.5% of world market share stay competitive? This presentation will take a look at how Volvo intends to fulfill its vision of selling 800,000 cars per year by 2020 - an increase of nearly 100% over current sales. Volvo’s future is about getting as much product to market as quickly as possible and to achieve this goal Volvo’s plans call for lead time to be reduced by 50%. Find out how Volvo’s investment in a new systems engineering architecture is critical to achieving this goal.

John Mannisto, Engineering Director, Simulation-Based Design, Whirlpool Corporation John Mannisto is Engineering Director for Simulation-Based Design at Whirlpool Corporation. Prior to joining Whirlpool, over five years ago, John held positions at Lockheed and John Deere. Has also been a CAE consultant to the aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas industries. His current focus is on CAE productivity in structures, fluids, dynamics, and manufacturing. John holds BSME and MSME degrees from Rutgers University in New Jersey.  

Rolf Hüsemann, Manager Engineering Systems & PLM, GETRAG FORD Transmissions Rolf Hüsemann and his team help define and maintain the IT processes and tools for GETRAG’s global product development (PD) solution. He advocates a PLM implementation strategy that respects the local requirements as well as the quickly changing global environment. He has 26 years of experience in supporting PD with IT solutions at Ford of Europe, Visteon, and GETRAG.  

Daniel E. Nicholson, P.E., Executive Director, Global Powertrain Embedded Controls, GM Dan Nicholson is the Executive Director for Global Powertrain Embedded Controls at GM. He has held this role since April, 2011. Dan is responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the global engineering team responsible for all powertrain controllers and software as well as calibrating all powertrains, providing customer-pleasing drive quality, and ensuring compliance with tailpipe emissions standards and on-board diagnostics. Prior to this appointment, Dan was the vice president of Global Quality from 2010-2011. He held this role after repatriating from Germany where he served as the head of Powertrain Product Engineering Europe from 2005-2010. The scope of this role included the development and engineering of all engines, transmissions, and alternative propulsion systems in the region. Dan began his career with General Motors as a co-op student at Buick Motor Division in 1982. He has an extensive background in Product Engineering

Lou Young, Jr., Director of New Business Development – Tooling & Manufacturing, Linear Mold & Engineering As Linear Mold & Engineering’s Director of New Business Development – Tooling & Manufacturing, Lou Young is on the front-line educating both new and existing customers of the benefits of conformal cooling. Overall, he provides strategic direction for the Linear tooling and manufacturing sales force. Lou spent the last 18 years in the automotive and plastics industries. He began his career working in various skilled trade positions including CNC operator, plastic injection mold maker, tool designer, and automotive part designer. After studying at the University of Southern California for Industrial & Systems Engineering, he joined Linear in 2003.  

Greg Schroeder, Assistant Director, Manufacturing, Engineering & Technology, Center for Automotive Research (CAR) Greg Schroeder is an assistant director at the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), where he works in the Manufacturing, Engineering and Technology (MET) Group. He joined CAR in 2008. Greg’s primary focus within MET is opportunities for mass reduction of new automobiles through advanced materials. As part of his focus, he has conducted technology reviews of advanced light weighting technology, investigated the impact of advanced lightweight materials on the automotive workforce, and conducted case studies documenting new applications with advanced materials. In addition to his primary responsibilities within MET, Greg has performed several studies on the viability of automotive testing services and has analyzed data for automotive body assembly variation modeling. He frequently works with the Transportation Systems Analysis (TSA) Group on telematics technology. Prior to joining CAR, Greg worked at General Motors first through their College Graduate Training Program,

Dan Mekker, Manager, Gas Turbine Design Integrity, Siemens Energy Dan Mekker has been working in the field of product design and development at SIEMENS Energy for over 30 years. Currently he is a manager in the Gas Turbine Design Integrity organization where he is responsible for design process and method integrity. His career has spanned development of product definition methods, standards and tools associated with the introduction of CAD, development of advanced analytical design methods and tools including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), development of Integrated Design Environments, and recently Collaborative Product Development environment (Teamcenter). Dan has worked constantly to introduce enabling product development capability associated with technical computing and advanced engineering design methodologies and tools.  

Anders Carlsson, Senior Advisor, Volvo Car Corporation Anders Carlsson is a senior advisor to Volvo Car Corporation (Volvo Cars) in the area of Virtual Manufacturing and PLM. In this role he is responsible for the Volvo Cars lead time reduction project within Manufacturing. He has been using and implementing Virtual Manufacturing solutions at Volvo Cars and within the BMW Group for over 25 years.